W.O.E. Collaboration With Tactile Turn

Pen, Flashlight, Knife, Watch - The Essentials

“If you didn’t write it down, it didn't happen” is a common saying in the intelligence business.  In a digital era, there is something satisfying about staying old school, and a custom pen, built to last a lifetime, is a must.

Custom Tactile Turn X W.O.E. Titanium Pen

TENTATIVE RE-RELEASE DATE 20 AUGUST 2024

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For CIA Case Officers, a quality pen and 3x5 cards are essential aspects of everyday carry and they are still items I carry religiously to this day. Despite rapid advancements in note-taking devices, I still defer to a pen and paper regularly. As a part of our ongoing effort to produce the best possible custom tools, we set out to design a purpose-built writing instrument fit for our community.

Enter the W.O.E. Custom Tactile Turn Bolt Action Pen. Milled from a solid block of titanium in the United States, our pen is lightweight and durable. For a premium feel, we opted for Tactile Turn’s Bolt Action construction, which extends or retracts the refill with one smooth, spring-loaded motion, more satisfying than the hollow click from your drugstore ten-pack of pens.

Inspired by our love for PVD-coated watches, we PVD’d the inside of the bolt and the clip, adding a subtle “Tactile Turn X WOE” engraving on the clip’s underside. Most importantly, the bolt is operated by way of a unique watch-style crown with a spearhead engraving. Details matter. It is so often the little things that have the greatest impact.

To be clear, this is by no means a “tactical pen”. Our titanium pen is a TSA-approved item primarily intended for writing, though we admit it may have other uses. We’ll leave it at that. Far from inexpensive perishable pens, our Bolt Action Pen is designed to last a lifetime and utilizes readily available Pilot G2 0.7mm refills. For the complete specifications, read HERE.

Product Development At W.O.E.

At Watches of Espionage, our product development model is to partner with true professionals – masters of their craft – to develop distinct and highly functional products that honor our community and our core belief that you should “use your tools.” In creating our ideal Everyday Carry (EDC) pen, we reached out to Tactile Turn because they are the best in the business at creating high-quality writing tools, hand-machined in Texas, right here in the United States.

As a company, we seek to partner with US manufacturers and use our platform to promote their craftsmanship. Working with Tactile Turn has been a pleasure, and it is no surprise that there is a significant crossover between the watch and EDC communities. The good people at Tactile Turn are industry leaders for a reason, doing incredibly detailed and consistent work machined by hand. They are also true innovators and were able to prototype the watch-style crown to produce a unique product for our community. Further, they stand behind their work with a lifetime warranty for all of their products including our W.O.E. Bolt Action Pen.

About Tactile Turn

Tactile Turn was founded in 2012 by Will Hodges who happens to be a watch guy with Tudor, Sinn, and OMEGA in the collection. Frustrated by the disconnect between the things we buy and how they’re made, Will took things into his own hands, purchasing a WWII-era lathe and producing his first 1000 pens completely by hand.

Things have taken off since then, and Tactile Turn now operates a serious 48,000-square-foot production facility in Dallas, Texas where a small team of machinists produce every single pen by hand. Will is still at the helm and still obsessed with producing quality pens in the United States that will probably outlive their owners. At W.O.E., we only work with suppliers who understand the "use your tools" ethos, and Tactile Turn is an excellent example.

TENTATIVE RELEASE DATE 20 AUGUST 2024

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All photos are courtesy of Ed Jelley.